Nothing else is recorded. At another manor of Lord
Townshend's, Raynham Parva, between the years 1347 and 1350 no court
seems to have been held, though the lord of the manor, Thomas de
Ingaldesthorp, had died in the interval. The scourge of the plague
had been so awful in its incidence that when the next court was held
on the 24th July, 1350, fourteen men and four women (holders of land,
be it remembered) are named as having died off, not one of whom had
left a living representative behind them. In all cases their little
holdings had escheated to the lord. Amongst them was one "John
Taleour, clericus." Was he the clerk who, up to this time, had kept
the Rolls so neatly, and who could not be easily replaced after he
fell a victim to the plague?
Indeed, the inquirer who is desirous of pursuing researches in this
field must be prepared for frequent disappointment just at the moment
when he thinks he has made a "find." The Court Rolls for this
particular year are comparatively scarce, and this is true not only
for East Anglia, but for the whole of England, as any one may see who
will only cast his eye down those pages of the Deputy-Keeper's Forty-
third Annual Report, which are concerned with the Records of the
Duchy of Lancaster. These _registers of deaths_ are, as I have
before said, only _complete as far as they go.
Pages:
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194